Assad’s fall welcomed in southern province of Suwayda but community continues to press Damascus caretaker government. Suwayda is well-equipped for protests. The central square of the city, home to one of Syria’s larger minority communities, hosts the crowds of weekly – or sometimes even daily – demonstrators calling for the representation and public services they have demanded for years.
![[A line of men in casual clothing go up steps into a building with flags flying at its entrance; one is the Syrian rebel flag]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/be5023f500c0abf8e501afe56c6d469c6f15a341/0_0_4000_2400/master/4000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Long before the fall last month of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the southern province of the same name had become a byword for resistance to rule by Damascus, unafraid to protest despite Assad’s crackdown on dissent and his hollow pledges to protect communities like theirs.
![[Four men with thick beards stand on a balcony; they are casually dressed in hoodies and look relaxed, with three of them smoking cigarettes, but one wears camouflage combat trousers and two have what look like gun holsters and ammo holders around their shoulders]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3542fdcf916e12aa04884362ab5c3670f17325ec/0_0_4000_2400/master/4000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The area is overwhelmingly filled with members of the Druze sect, who follow an esoteric form of Islam whose adherents span a swath of Lebanon and Syria, including the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Even before Assad fled last month as an insurgency reached Damascus, residents of Suwayda had been demanding a secular state that enshrined minority rights, and are now emphatically insisting their voices be heard in the new Syria.
![[A Druze soldier from the Sheikhs of Dignity forces rests his head on a deceased leader’s grave at their command centre in the outskirts of Suwayda.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2c39cc9cc5dc1d240e904267bcf65bbf12959814/0_227_4000_2400/master/4000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“Since last August until now we’ve been protesting daily,” said Alia Kuntar, a lawyer, after the weekly demonstration held in Suwayda City’s central square in front of a metal pavilion emblazoned with the words “Peace to all Syrians”. “And we will keep protesting until we get the state we want. We haven’t felt any crackdown from the new government, but equally we didn’t see any action on the ground in response to our demands.”.
![[Yasser Hussein Abu Fakher in his home: he has a thick white beard and wears a white cylindrical hat and black robes]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0661997f72110dc2cfa30aded1f3fe27997ed5ba/0_288_4000_2400/master/4000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
